Goal: Support national price-gouging law that protects all U.S. consumers from artificially inflated prices.

Price-gouging in the age of COVID-19 has reached troubling proportions. Several grocers and other food suppliers across the country have been charged with spiking prices on some products as much as 300 percent. Online retailer Amazon has suspended hundreds of affiliate sellers because of jacked-up and unethical pricing practices. In the worst cases, unscrupulous business owners have sent desperately needed essential equipment like masks and sanitizers into the pricing stratosphere and out of reach of most consumers. Without a comprehensive defense, consumers will continue to be at the mercy of this manipulative and greed-driven behavior.

To date, a hodge-podge of state laws with wildly varying guidelines and punishments protect consumers from this prevalent threat. Twelve states have not enacted a single price-gouging law. This urgent issue calls for a unified federal response. Sign the petition below to urge U.S. leaders to ensure deeply selfish businesses do not take advantage of consumers during a time of immense hardship for so many Americans.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Senator Moran,

The law of supply and demand is one matter. Raising the price of an egg, a bottle of water, or a mask that could save one’s life by 300 percent, however, does not respect any law or any ethical principle. Consumers nationwide can attest that price-gouging has become an enormous problem at a time when this country needs it least.

Amazon, an organization that has suspended many of its selling partners for just this horrible swindling practice, has recommended a federal law that would give the Federal Trade Commission authority to investigate and punish price-gouging on a greater scale. The state laws concerning this issue are spotty at best and non-existent at worst. A national response is not only wise but essential.

Safeguard consumers from a threat emboldened and unleashed by a worldwide crisis.